As an overview for the true novice, this book is full of good, basic, up-to-date ideas. However, this book is defintely not for every business with an online presence - and doesn't say that. The author never clearly states that by using the term "small business" throughout the book, she's actually referring specifically to e-tailers and those providing services to consumers. Most of the tips and suggestions would not be useful or practical if you're a consultant or use the web to promote other business-to-business types of products and services. For that, I'm disappointed.

This book is not for the complete ASP beginner, but for someone wanting an introduction and reference to the objects (e.g., request, response, session) and components (e.g., ad rotator, page counter, file access). Although the examples in this book are in VBScript this book should not be thought of as a reference for VBScript. Though short, the examples were enough to start me using the features, for example setting a session timeout, using a collections reference or sending email from a script. I did find the examples on the ActiveX Data Objects a little sparse and the author admits, "there are several more advanced topics". I had previously found the global.asa file and #include files somewhat mysterious so this chapter was helpful. With the availability of online documentation, I found the author advise about using the feature or limitations more valuable than details of the parameters. There is enough of an introduction to give you the concepts in most areas. Additionally the specification of what driver is needed for a component can be helpful if there are problems. I will continue to use this book in conjunction with online documentation.

I bought and received this book about a month ago. I had been using the Gonzalez book for quite some time. It's quite poor compared to this book. This handbook is so accessible and complete, it's all I'm using in my work now. It's very much like a textbook and handbook and how-to book all rolled in one. I work for Microsoft in the digital video area and I'm using it daily. Kudos!!

Russel and Crawford expertly guide the user through the complex multitude of features, detailing the usage of the feature, its signficance, clear instructions for its implementation, and subsequent troubleshooting tips. The planning, troubleshooting and disaster recovery sections are particular standouts, and this edition features important new security information not to be missed. From inception through production, this is the only book you will ever need for all your Windows 2000 Server needs!